Enrolled at Riverstone High School (RHS) in Ohio, Jasmine and Jackson Ghasnavi are the mixed race (half White, half Iranian) children of doctors. Jasmine is a senior who loves pottery, and Jackson’s passion is theatre. When their parents divorce, Jackson develops abandonment issues and Jasmine struggles to find a lasting relationship. Jackson helps his sister cope with her breakups by constructing breakup lists. At the recommendation of his therapist, Jackson also uses lists to cope with his own anxiety. These lists and teen relationship drama form the plot for Adib Khorram’s novel The Breakup Lists.
As a former “theatre kid” himself, Khorram infuses his novel with theatre terms and technical knowledge, such as leko lights and call-backs. Because RHS has an active Gender and Sexuality Alliance Club for its students, the book embraces various gender and sexual identities. For example, Jackson’s best friend, Bowie Anderson is aroace and uses plural pronouns.
Khorram also honors the identities of the differently abled. Both Jackson and Bowie navigate life as hearing impaired, so readers learn the challenges of communication. Whenever Jackson isn’t able to hear someone, the book includes “somethingsomething” as an indicator of a communication gap. Reading the book and observing these challenges reminded me of the spoken word poem “Tamara’s Opus” by Joshua Bennett, a poem he performed at the White House in 2009.
In the telling of his tale, Khorram reveals key life lessons about honesty, love, and self-acceptance. From experience, Jackson and Jasmine have learned to rely on one another for unconditional love and support. After Jasmine endures heartbreak when Liam Coquyt breaks up with her, she says: “You’re my brother. You’re the only one I can count on. . . . Come on, you love making those lists. You can find fault with anyone. . . . You think love won’t last, so you come up with reasons why it’s not work trying” (160).
The Breakup Lists further elucidates the need for community—whether gender/sexuality community, hearing impaired community, or race and ethnicity community. Bowie astutely points out to Jackson, “Sometimes it’s like you get so caught up in what you do, you forget it’s okay to celebrate who you are.”
- Posted by Donna